Tag Archives: morphine

There is no joy in Painville. Our answer to pain is: “make it go away”! It spoils quality of life. The socio-economic costs for treatments, loss of productivity and absenteeism, are measured in billions USD$.

Today, moderate to severe pain is treated mostly with NSAIDs, narcotics or tricyclics (anti-depressants). Properly prescribed, these effectively alleviate pain. However, for cases of sustained chronic pain, they become problematic. More than 30% of the population coping with chronic pain are insensitive to morphine derivatives or other pain treatments. They can lose their effectiveness (tolerance), most can be abused and are addictive (dependence), but overall, given in multitherapy, their side effects are additive and deleterious. These problems arise from a lack of comprehension in their mode of action. This is not good news for neuropathic and chronic pain sufferers looking for long term relief.

Research that could lead to discovery of non-narcotic drugs signaling via opioidergic-independent pathways is part of the solution for people coping with chronic pain. This brings us to our back story featuring Dr. Philippe Sarret and his Research Team at the University of Sherbrooke.

About Dr. Philippe Sarret

-Masters (biochemistry), University of Nice in 1994.

-Diploma (DEA, cellular and molecular biology), University of Nice 1996.

I asked Dr. Nicolas Beaudet, a Sarret lab member, why he joined the lab. He said, “ Philippe is a great communicator. He has the ability to articulate his complex research in a way that is easy to understand, visionary and exciting”. The aspect that Nicolas finds most intriguing is the systems approach that Philippe and the team take in understanding the mechanisms of pain. This enables them to work at them molecular level up to the whole animal. This is a key step in finding potential new pain therapies.

Drilling Down

Philippe and his team centered their efforts on G Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) such as apelin, chemokines and neurotensin. As a common point, they were all recently identified in the central nervous system to provide a potential role in pain modulation.

Lately, the focus has been on the roles of Neurotensin Receptor 1 (NTS1) and Neurotensin Receptor 2 (NTS2). Recent studies have highlighted the role of these receptors in pain modulation and more is to come…:

The wow factor for me was the clever way Philippe and his team used a new technology of 27mer NTS2 Dicer Duplex siRNA (DsiRNA) delivery in vivo as a proof for the potential of DisRNAs-based pain therapies.

Using ultra low dose of DsiRNAs complexed with Neuromics’ i-Fect ™, they were able to successfully reduce NTS2 gene expression by up to 86% in rat lumbar Dorsal Root Ganglia after only two intrathecal injections. This was confirmed by Western Blot and qPCR analysis.

What Happened

Using an acute pain model, anti-nociceptive effects of NTS2, induced by a selective agonist, were significantly reduced following NTS2 silencing This resulted in rats showing an increased sensitivity to pain. By day four, the knockdown effects showed a decrease with the NTS2 function returning to normal.

What ‘s next

So we have a great start. We know that agonists binding to NTS2 in the CNS lead to analgesia. We know that DsiRNA can be used to alter the expression of this gene in vivo. We have provided a key step in learning how the NTS2 receptors can be manipulated to block pain. However, now we need to unravel the underlying mechanisms explaining these spinal analgesic properties.

It is my hope that Philippe and his team are appropriately funded. This would catalyze further discoveries in how expression of G Protein Coupled Receptors like NTS1, NTS2, APJ, CCR2 can be targeted to modulate pain. By using rodents, the team can develop tools like DsiRNA to increase the potency and duration of pain blockade. Moreover, potential toxicity and side effects need to be addressed in order to move forward towards clinical studies. These pre-clinical models prove invaluable in taking the step to studies in humans.These therapies hold the promise of providing relief for chronic pain (neuropathic, arthritic, diabetic, cancer pain, etc.) sufferers without the current side effects. Stay tuned as I will be reporting the good news as it unfolds.

Neuromics has been helping researchers make “gains on pain” from day one. Our initial sales were Opioid Receptor Antibdies licensed from Dr. Robert Elde’s lab at the University of Minnesota.

From this start, we have expanded our expertise and products. Our reputation in this area has resulted in our forming collaborations and friendships with research teams doing important work in chronic and nociceptive pain research.

Over the past several years, I have worked closely with Dr. Nicolas Beaudet, a member of Dr. Philippe Sarret’s team, at the University of Sherbrooke”. In our next backstory we will feature the vangaurd work they are doing on the Neurotensin (NTS) Receptors and pain.

Manipulation of these receptors-NTS-1, NTS-2 and NTS-3 could represent a therapy for pain independent of the opioid pathway. This means pain could be treated without narcotics meaning a reduction of side effects from current treatments including addiction to pain killers.